For more than three decades Nigel Sizer has orbited the front lines of environmental policy. His résumé spans forest conservation in Amazonia, the launch of Global Forest Watch at the World Resources Institute, and campaigns on human rights, climate change, and even pandemic preparedness. The arc of that career has led him to an unglamorous but decisive arena: what the world eats. “While our food system is a major driver of many crises, it also has huge potential to be part of the solution,” he says. The way meat is produced touches national security, biodiversity, public health, and the climate all at once. Sizer has just taken the helm at the Good Food Institute (GFI), a nonprofit dedicated to speeding the shift from conventional animal protein to plant-based, fermentation-enabled, and cultivated meat. He sees the role as “a chance to work at the root-cause level of the exact challenges I’ve spent my life tackling.” If alternative proteins become mainstream, he argues, they can relieve pressure on forests, protect wildlife, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and improve resilience to global health shocks. His past posts have prepared him for a job built on coalition building. Whether designing satellite-driven tools to monitor forests or mobilizing resources for restoration, Sizer has specialized in convening disparate actors around common goals. GFI’s work, he notes, will require the same skills: international collaboration, new partnerships, and a diversity of approaches across regions to transform how the world produces protein. “Scaling impact and unlocking critical resources,” he says,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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